First Travel Entry / Getting to Taiwan
I’ve been keeping a travel journal while I’ve been embarked on this two and a half month rollercoaster of a vacation and I’ve been trying to figure out how to distribute it to other people. I was thinking of having a write up for each country I stayed in, but I realized quite abruptly how large those entries would be and they wouldn’t be easily digestible, even by the most adamant of readers. I was then further spurred into action when I saw that two of my best friends, Matt and Mark Schulte, had started keeping a daily blog about their biking conquests in Europe by sending stories from their phones. It was obviously a little late for me to start a daily blog, and I wasn’t quite certain that I wanted to talk about my trip in that fashion. So, I decided to go over my journal entries and write up entries for cohesive segments of my trip, adding detail where I thought it was necessary and leaving out the superfluous minutiae likewise. So, this is the first entry of hopefully many, giving an abridged summary of my trip around the world during the summer of 2015.
Getting to Taiwan
The adventure that I signed up for began earlier than I expected. I arrived early for my flight, bidding a sad goodbye to my mom and dad; once I arrived at my gate, a congenial gentleman sitting nearby struck up a conversation with me and we talked about his work as a foundation layer. This really aided me in being more outgoing for the rest of the trip. I then proceeded to Chicago for a layover, and while waiting for my plane to take off I spoke with a bridegroom named Shing who was going to Taiwan to get married. Once we finally took off, everything seemed fine. Little did I know that it was merely the calm before the storm.
About two hours into our flight, a disturbing voice came in over the loud speaker saying, “We have to make an emergency landing in Seattle because of a medical emergency.” I had no idea what was going on, but soon we were skidding along the tarmac at SEA-TAC, and unboarding the plane. I don’t know what happened to the person with the medical issue, but hopefully everything turned out alright. Unfortunately for the rest of the flight, we were all now stranded in SEA-TAC. Shing and I quickly made our way to the help desk where a whole plane of people were trying to figure out what to do. We called United and were able to get an alternative flight, and ended up hanging out for about 5 hours to get our tickets from EVA, which didn’t open until 10. Once they did, I went over to get my ticket and was turned around saying I needed a certain piece of paper.
I then rushed over to the United line and waited for another hour, this was still from the plane I got off of, it took them 6 hours to clear a plane full of people! It was pretty crazy, anyways I got my paper and returned to the EVA line with raucous joy, glad that I was finally getting out of there, I was even humming with happiness. I actually grabbed the attention of this tall guy, probably in his fifties that was carrying a guitar case and had an aura of coolness about him. Anyways, he looked over at me and asked me if we’ve met before, he could have sworn that we had. I replied no, but we talked anyways and it turned out that he used to play in the band SRC. We parted ways and I went to get my ticket, unfortunately they needed a separate piece of paper, so I rushed over to the united desk again and caught the last attendant while she was just about to leave. Long story short, I made it onto the plane and was on my way to Taiwan.
My First day in Taiwan
I had been up for quite a while at that point, and slept like a rock on the plane. When I finally landed, Andy met me with his uncle and we hurried to the train station where he dropped us off, and I met Andy’s aunt who was bursting with energy and a large smile that conveyed her kindness. We then boarded a train to Hualien, which is a small tourist town on the east side of Taiwan. We all talked on the train, and me and Andy had a nice chance to catch up on each other’s lives. Once we arrived in Hualien I was simultaneously struck by the sheer quantity of gas scooters int the street and the abundance of people that were eschewing forth from the train station.
Unfortunately it was raining, and instead of biking to our hotel, we decided to take a cab to a bike shop, were it continued to rain and we resigned ourselves to taking a bus to our hotel, which was incredibly nice and was booked by Andy’s aunt. It was really more like a bed and breakfast, but the staff was very indulgent and actually gave us a little afternoon snack that was quite delicious. The rain eventually stopped, and we went into town spending our time trying mochi samples and having a simple dinner of noodles and some classic Taiwan beer, which was very light. After dinner, Andy’s Aunt introduced us to one of the most delicious parts of Taiwan, the dessert of snow ice covered in sugary fruit or other delicious toppings. It was most welcome in the heat and humidity that surrounded us in Taiwan.
